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FamilySupport

Our school families are supported by our Pastoral Team, made up of our two Learning Mentors, Miss Julie Lawrence and Miss Stacey Wilkinson, and our Family Support Worker Mrs Catherine Simmonds, who is also our Pupil Attendance Officer.

Our Pastoral Team work closely with families to support their children in school, including work on their confidence, friendships, and health issues. Our Pastoral Team also works closely with the NHS School Nurses team, to promote pupils’ health.

This half term the learning mentors will be talking to children about the ways that different people deal with difficult feelings. These include:

Bottling Up: Some people hold their feelings inside and may become so pressurised that they feel like they might explode.Suppressing: Others lock their feelings away, burying them deep inside so that they don’t have to think about them.Withdrawing: Some people will hide themselves away and this can lead to feelings of depression, helplessness or paralysis.Dumping: This is where we blame others for the way we feel. We hand the responsibility for our feelings to others.Acting Out: Some people become taken over by their difficult feelings, often losing control altogether. They may yell or become violent.

All these ways of dealing with painful feelings may seem to help at the time, but they don’t actually solve the problem as they all tend to be destructive.
Some more constructive alternatives to think about include:

Reflecting: We try to accept our feelings without being overwhelmed by them. We think about them, reframe them and try to resolve them.Expressing: Letting our feelings out. We acknowledge them to ourselves, talking and taking safe action such as crying or punching a cushion.Letting Go: When we have taken notice of the messages our feelings bring, we can release them.

These ideas and strategies have been developed by The Family Links Nurturing Programme: How to get the best out of family life. They are just one of many useful approaches to issues that all families face.